Why Is It Always a Van?

Below is an article that ties in with the ole Dog Perv post. One question, though: Why is it always a van?


A registered sex offender arrested Friday in front of Jamestown Elementary School with pornography in his van was released from jail Monday.

There was not enough evidence to hold 44-year-old Clayton Dean Hill, said Tuolumne County District Attorney Donald Segerstrom.

Hill, who lists his address as the 5100 block of Nuness Road, Turlock, was released from jail around 3:45 p.m. Monday. He had been held since his arrest Friday afternoon on suspicion of failing to register his address, as is required by all convicted sex offenders, and attempting to annoy or molest children.

Segerstrom said Monday afternoon that sheriff's investigators checked with the mobile home park manager in Turlock where Hill said he lived and in fact Hill does still live there. Sheriff's Lt. Dan Bressler added that there was not enough evidence to hold him on the attempted molest charge.

"The elements of the crime weren't there," said Bressler. "There was no attempt made."

But he said the department is continuing to investigate Hill, "where's he'd been, what he's been up to," and that charges could be filed against him if evidence warrants.

Hill was arrested Friday around 2:30 p.m. after a deputy saw him driving around Jamestown Elementary dressed in a black-and-red marching band uniform. In Hill's blue GMC van, Deputy Brandon Lowry found children's toys, games and a pornographic videotape inside a box marked "Cinderella."

"There was no evidence Mr. Hill committed any crime," Segerstrom said. "He lived at the place he registered. That does not mean, however, that we won't still be investigating and possibly filing charges."

Hill's picture appears on the Megan's Law Database, the state Attorney General's Web site of registered sex offenders.

He was convicted of annoying children, a misdemeanor, in Stanislaus County. But, said Bressler, he is not now on parole or probation.

The Sheriff"s Department sent Hill's booking photo and information about his arrest to the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office for dispersal to the county's schools, but not until Monday afternoon.

Hill's van, which was towed away Friday after his arrest, was claimed by his relatives before he was released from custody, Bressler said.

Jamestown School officials weren't notified of the incident until Monday afternoon, Superintendent Diane Dotson confirmed. Usually, information is promptly given to the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office, which then passes it onto the schools.

"Typically, we have a really good communication and working relationship with the sheriff, but I'm not sure here what the breakdown was this time," she said.

She hopes it was a one-time oversight, she said.

The district has notified all staff and is in the process of alerting parents.

"We're taking extra precautions with the supervision of the children," Dotson said.